Peace Care Blog

August 2010 News

Strategic Planning

Peace Care is undertaking a very exciting venture this summer by completing a strategic planning process. We have, thus far, completed two of three separate working sessions. Our first session in June was well attended by Chicago personnel and we had several members of our team calling in to join the discussion. Our July session was converted to a small working group to address some specific questions critical to the administration of Peace Care. Our discussions have been extremely lively and we are building the Peace Care model. We will be holding one more retreat during the month of August after which we will be compiling our work. We are looking forward to sharing our report with you soon! Many thanks to Michael Swaine for his work in organizing this effort and to all who are contributing.

Peace Care Senegal

Our Peace Care Senegal pilot has been slightly delayed due primarily to IRB issues. Our team, however, is assembled, and we have a viable plan in place. We did anticipate some disruption during this initial project, and, therefore, planned additional time into the phases. We will still be able to meet our major milestones, however, without too much difficulty. We are looking forward to moving ahead in the very near future. Thanks to all for your terrific support! We will be soliciting donations in the near future to help with the financing of this initial project. Stay tuned if you are interested in helping support this effort. Otherwise, stay tuned anyway! We can’t wait to move forward and keep you informed! Thanks to all of the team, especially the PCV’s working with us, Matt McLaughlin and Christopher Brown!

Peace Care Process: Systematic Review of the Literature

Peace Care has had a very exciting advancement in methodology this summer. We have benefited from the enthusiastic assistance and work of UIC medical student, Yury Parra, who, through an internship, has worked with Peace Care this summer to develop our standard approach to Literature Review. She has performed a critical evaluation of the literature surrounding cervical cancer screening in low resource settings. Her methodology is an adaptation of a Realist Synthesis model that incorporates quantitative and qualitative assessment in a manner that places an emphasis on application of evidence. This model, as more fully and completely developed, will aid Peace Care to translate existing research directly into community based projects. In addition, this will guide the reporting format of our own projects.

NIH Grant

Peace Care is anxiously awaiting the announcement of grant awards for the NIH Director’s Opportunity of Research in Five Thematic Areas. August is the month for announcements. We will update you soon!

Global HEALTH Act Introduced!!! Request for Advocacy

Sign a Petition on Change.org to include Peace Care language in this bill! So far, we have 116 signatures on this petition!

U.S. Representatives and their staff are their home districts periodically meeting with constituents like you on the issues you care about. Can you make a visit to your legislator’s office to talk about the Global HEALTH Act and Peace Care?

The Global HEALTH Act was introduced recently by Rep. Barbara Lee of California. This act is one of the most comprehensive and in-depth approaches to making sure that patients in developing countries have access to the health workers, health systems, treatments, and care they need. This is our chance to be a part of a landmark global health bill.

By signing this petition, you are making sure that key legislators are learning about Peace Care and what it does.

Reaching Out!

We are continuing to seek students and professionals with experience in nonprofit management, photo and video journalism, fundraising, business, finance, law, and project management to help us move forward with the project of Peace Care. We are recruiting individuals who can participate on Working Groups, act in a Board Leadership position, or act in an Advisory Position.

As well, we are still looking to “spread the word.” Please encourage others to join our Peace Care Facebook Page. Please join this page if you have not done so (different from the cause).

We are making a special request that youSuggestthis page especially to your current and returned Peace Corps friends or those interested in Global/ International Health.

We are making great strides and are very enthusiastic about the possibilities for Peace Care!!!

Peace Care’s vision is a world where quality health care is available to all. To achieve this, Peace Care cultivates global health solutions by creating enduring partnerships between communities of need and resource organizations.